40 min day sleeps

Hi,
My DD is 11 months old and currently has two day sleeps - one at around 10.30am and the other at about 2.30pm - problem is she only sleeps for 40 minutes and then she's wide awake. She goes to bed at night at about 7.30-8pm and usually wakes up 2-3 times (some times she needs her dummy - even though she has 6 in the cot!!!). Is there any way to extend the day sleeps? i find that bse the day sleeps are so short she often has another sleep at around 4-5pm. Are the short day sleeps affecting her ability to sleep longer at night - good day sleeps=good night sleeps? I have been told that at her age she should have two 1-2hr sleeps a day.

OMG Lilli, your DD is almost exactly the same as my DS.

He sleeps 2 times a day for about an hour, sometimes 40 mins sometimes longer. He goes to bed between 7-8pm and wakes at least once (often more) for a feed or he just needs a hand resettling.

I have tried everything in the book to extend his day sleeps. It is just that he has had enough after 40mins-1 hour and is ready to rock and roll. He isn't tired in the slightests so I think it futile to persist with getting him back to sleep when he is all smiles and wants to play.

About good day sleeps = good night sleeps it isn't the truth for us. On the odd occasion that DS has had two 1.5hour sleeps in the day the nights are even worse.

Sorry I couldn't be of any help, I just wanted to say I know exactly how you feel.

Spring

Hey Lilli

My DD was doing the exact same thing re. 2x 40 min naps..I could never extend them! and I think that's quite a common thing. It is hard though isn't it..it just doesn't seem to be enough sleep for them!

When my DD was about 1 yr, she then started going to bed at 6pm which I found was great for her and me! Around this time she then started sleeping through until about 5-6am too. Maybe try an earlier bed time and see how that goes?

Michaela will probably change her routine anyway very soon..they tend to do that just to confuse us I think! So hang in there!

Oh, and on the good day sleeps=good night sleeps thing, I don't think that's always the case. My DD is a pretty crappy day sleeper but is great at nights now!

It sounds like she is only sleeping for one sleep cycle - which is exactly what my DD was doing at that age! PLEASE don't listen to people who say how long she should be sleeping for, every baby is different, and my DD for one never had 2 big sleeps, but she slept well at night.
I'll tell you what worked for us - we moved to 1 day sleep at around 12mths (started around 11mths, but still sometimes needed 2 depending on what time she woke up in the morning!) - her one sleep would be after an early lunch, so she would eat then be asleep by 1130am, then she sometimes sleeps for 3hrs! It meant that she would have some good awake time in the arvo and be ready for bed by 7pm. This routine is still working for us - she is now 18mths old.
HTH - all the best :)

Thanks ladies, it's nice to know I am not the only one with a 40 min sleeper!!

I think at 11 months, a 40 min nap isn't the problem it may be for a 4 month old who still needs a lot of sleep during the day iykwim? Has she always been like this? Despite what the 'experts' tell us, some babies just never extend their naps beyond one sleep cycle despite mum trying and trying to resettle them.

The 'general rule of thumb' for 10-12 months is 2x naps of 1-2 hours. So she's only just cutting it short. Soon I would think she'll be ready to have one big sleep in the middle of the day (this usually happens about 12-15 months from my experience) and many mums who previously had short nappers find that they do better in one block - so she might work her way up to having one big sleep of about 2-2.5 hours.

How is she when she wakes after 40 mins? Is she crying for you? If she is happy enough to talk and play for a while longer, I'd leave her in her bed for around the hour mark, at least she is rested and not being stimulated, it might help.

My baby 10+ months has been doing a similar thing with the day sleeps; they've been erratic and her night sleep also - she often wakes 2 or 3 times and often won't go back to sleep for 2 hours or more.
I have started putting her to bed earlier. She used be in bed 7.30-8pm but am now trying for 7pm. This means eating dinner at 5pm, bath by 6, then books and breastfeed and bed.
So far, her night sleep is still a bit erratic, but I'm finding her day sleeps are getting back on par. (She's just had an hour and 1/4, yay!) I'm hoping that this will help her night sleep. The No Cry Sleep Solution book suggests that bad sleeps begets bad sleep.
I've only been implementing this change for about a week, so we'll see how it goes.

I agree with the other poster that all babies needs are different. I only sought a solution because though 'happy enough' during the day when wake, I could see that she really was tired, yawning and tired looking eyes.

Good luck!

Willow: yes, I think you are right about 40 mins perhaps not being such a big deal at her age...(although it stops me from getting anything done!). She has occassionally forgone the morning sleep and has done a long 2hr+ sleep, so maybe she is heading towards a one big (hopefully) day sleep.

When she wakes up she is not at all grizzly or upset, maybe 40mins is all she needs at this stage.

I just saw this thread and had to add a "me too!" My little man is 9 months old and does 3 little naps, for between 30 mins- 1 hr each, at 9:30, around 12:30 and again at 3:00. He then goes down at around 6-6:30, usually until around 6:30 in the morning.

SOmetimes it drives me crazy, basically as soon as i get a cup of tea he seems to wakes up, but I am just cruising with it, he seems to be happy with the way things are!!!!Hopefully he will stretch out to big sleep soonish in his own time. I'm glad there are bubs like m ine!! My 1st used to do 2 x 2 hrs so totally different!!!

Yep...sounds like my little boy too!

He's only doing 1 sleep of 40 minutes in the day...and very occasionally an afternoon sleep.

His night sleeps aren't that great either. He goes to sleep around 7pm, wakes for a feed at 10pm, 1am and sometimes 5am...

He's 11 months too!

Oh...what I would do for a full night's sleep!!!

mmm this morning only a 10 minute sleep!!!doh. and he was happy, no way he was going down again.

Lilli, sounds like it's a fairly common thing around that age! Oskar was exactly the same! It's taken me up to only a few weeks ago that an earlier day sleep works better for him...lol. He used to hang out until around 1/2pm and only sleep for maybe an hour if I was lucky but now I put him down around 11/11:30am and he sleeps up to 2 hours - usually approx. 1 1/2 hours and that's it for the day. He is a late bed time kid at night though and it's around 9ish pm most nights and sleep till approx. 8:30am most mornings. I usually make sure he has a snack before his sleep then he has lunch when he wakes up.

My DD is the same! She's never slept much during the day at all. I'm sure someone's already mentioned it but a baby sleep cycle is about 40 minutes, so even though it doesn't seem like that long, if that's all she needs then its fine. Is she tired when she wakes up?

Yep...we are down to 10 minute day sleeps at the moment!

I'm slowly going insane!!!

I can remember DD1 going from 2 day time sleeps to one long one around 12months of age. Maybe slowly merge the two sleeps. For instance if bub has a morning sleep around 10am try and extend it to 10.30 until you can extend it to say 11am. Then try and encourage her to sleep for longer. This maybe a bit of work but it just may work. I would much rather a toddler have a long lunch time sleep than 2 quickies.

You may have to work really hard to achieve this. I would stay home for a week and instist on set plan. At first it maybe frustrating but eventually she'll come around...hopefully